Local history

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Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context. Often it concentrates on the local community. It incorporates cultural and social aspects of history.

The British Association for Local History in the United Kingdom encourages and assists in the study of local history as an academic discipline and as a leisure activity by both individuals and groups. The American Local History Network (ALHN) in the USA provides a focus for accessing independent genealogical and historical resources.

In the United States of America, local history is usually concentrated on any history of the place and people from a particular village or township. Several villages and townships would comprise one county or county history. Library records are often divided by State, then county, then township/local history.

Individual historic sites are inherently local, although they may have national or world history importance as well. In the United States, 79,000 historic sites are identified as listings on its National Register of Historic Places. State and local municipalities often have additional landmark designations to cover sites of more purely local interest.

Local history is often documented by local historical societies or groups that form to preserve a local historic building or other historic site. Artifacts of local history are collected in local history museums, often housed in a historic house or other building. The Shushan Bridge is a listed, historic covered bridge in New York State that is closed to traffic, and which now serves as a seasonal local museum.

Historic plaques are one form of documentation.

Oral histories are another.